Coronavirus NZ: Jacinda Ardern postpones election until October 17

Jacinda Ardern has postponed the NZ election due to concerns over the resurgence of coronavirus in the community.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday delayed New Zealand’s looming election by four weeks after a renewed coronavirus outbreak hampered campaigning.

The election, which had been planned for September 19, will now take place on October 17.

Restrictions – Level 3 in Auckland and level 2 in the rest of the country, have been extended to August 26 as the original cluster of four cases continues to grow. There are currently 69 cases in the country, 46 of which are linked to the original group.

Ms Ardern was under pressure from political opponents and her coalition partners to shift the original September 19 vote following the shock discovery of COVID-19 in Auckland last week, sending the country’s largest city into lockdown.

She said the return of the virus after 102 days without community transmission had rattled Kiwis and could have discouraged some from casting ballots in a September election.

The Labour leader, who is riding high in opinion polls, also acknowledged concerns from rivals that curbs on campaigning would unfairly weigh the election in favour of her government.

After spending the weekend consulting party leaders and the electoral commission, she chose October 17, the earliest delayed date available to her.

She said that while the decision over an election date was usually made by the prime minister alone, she wanted to ensure it was “as free from partisan political interests as possible”.

Ms Ardern said the decision came down to three factors: the participation of voters and the ability of the electoral commission to reassure them they could vote safely, the ability of all parties to campaign and the need for the election to be held in a timely way.

“At the end of the last week I was advised (October 17) is achievable and presents no greater risk had we retained the status quo,” she said.

“I’ve also been advised by moving to a 17 October election date, the (electoral) commission will be able to leverage and draw much of the work already undertaken to deliver the election. Beginning early voting during school holidays, while having the downside of some people moving around the country, would mean that some additional facilities will become available for the purpose of early voting.”

Ms Ardern said the change meant all parties would be campaigning under the same conditions and she would not move the election’s timing again regardless of the situation.

“I have absolutely no intention at all to change from this point,” she said. “This decision gives all parties time over the next nine weeks to campaign and the electoral commission enough time to ensure an election can go ahead.”

Ms Ardern said the biggest risk of moving the election date would be ensuring the country’s 25,000 election workers were protected as they work.

She said she considered moving the election by just two weeks but was advised by the election commission this would not leave them enough time to prepare for the new date.

However, Ms Ardern said the decision was by no means an “extraordinary move”.

“It’s not one that’s constitutionally challenging, it does sit within the time frame of when an election legally needs to be held in New Zealand,” she said.

Ms Ardern has proposed that parliament will reconvene on Tuesday. It will dissolve on September 6, while advance voting will begin on Saturday October 3.

“COVID is the world’s new normal,” she said.

“I know the uncertainty COVID has caused is incredibly difficult. I do not intend to change the election date again.”

All parties temporarily suspended campaigning in the wake of last week’s outbreak, the source of which remains unknown.

The virus was first detected in four family members in Auckland early last week and by Monday the cluster had grown to 58 confirmed cases, with five people in hospital.

New Zealand is following the same strategy that helped contain coronavirus during a seven-week lockdown earlier this year — isolating positive cases, contact tracing and extensive testing.

The earlier success has helped lift Ms Ardern’s personal popularity rating to a record 60 per cent, along with her leadership during last year’s Christchurch mosque attacks and the White Island volcano eruption.

The Labour Party is on track to win office in its own right, without the minor party coalition partners — the Greens and New Zealand First — it needed during its first term. The main opposition National Party last week demanded the election be postponed until late November, or preferably next year, saying September 19 was untenable.

NZF backed the delay on Monday after earlier saying the September option had been “fatally compromised” by the outbreak.

“Common sense has prevailed,” said NZF leader and Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, whose populist party faces an election wipeout on current polling.

The Greens said the four-week delay should give health authorities time to contain the Auckland cluster. But co-leader James Shaw accused some parties of displaying “naked political self-interest” in demanding a delay, saying they hoped the pandemic’s economic impact would dent the government’s popularity in the meantime.

“We have been incredibly disappointed to see the National and other small parties continue to use the weekend to bang on about what would suit them best politically,” he said.

The virus is a strain not previously seen in New Zealand and national health director-general Ashley Bloomfield said tests to check if it was imported via freight sent to an Auckland coolroom facility were still being processed.

But he assured the public there was no risk in purchasing frozen goods from the supermarket.

“There’s no evidence of transmission by food or food packaging to date,” he said, adding that some form of human-to-human infection was still considered the most likely source of the outbreak.

Additional reporting: AFP